Monday, March 22, 2010

This year's comp picks mystery

Last year, the biggest mystery surrounding the comp picks concerned Alan Faneca and why the Pittsburgh Steelers got only a fifth-round comp pick for him.

This year, the biggest mystery seems to be why Angelo Crowell did not count as a player signed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was a true UFA last offseason, he signed on March 18, and he signed for $2.5 million (plus incentives) for one season. Yes, he spent the entire season on Injured Reserve, but players who were on IR have qualified in the past. Perhaps it is because he signed a one-year contract and spent that season on IR. If that is the case, however, would he also be disqualified from the equation next year if he leaves this offseason? Or could he actually count as a player lost after not counting as a player signed?

Another mystery is how the NFL deemed T.J. Houshmandzadeh's value to be greater than Albert Haynesworth's value, which is the reason that Cincinnati got a higher third-round comp pick than Tennessee. Perhaps a big chunk of the money in Haynesworth's contract doesn't count in the formula. I'll take a closer look and see what I can find.

Given that contract value carries by far the most weight in the formula, the difference in playing time between Haynesworth and Houshmandzadeh wasn't enough to push Houshmandzadeh to the top unless a big chunk of Haynesworth's contract did not count.

Geekchik, Arizona signed two qualifying players and lost two qualifying players, so the best the Cardinals could hope for was a net value pick, but as I projected, the difference in values was not enough to warrant one. Had the Cardinals not signed Jason Wright, they would have received a third-round pick for Antonio Smith.

Hmm...Jason Wright (and his entire 70yds from scrimmage) or a 3rd round pick - tough choice [insert sarcasm]. It's interesting how many franchises don't get how to work the system for comp picks. Here's a telling quote from the owner of the Bengals:"Over the whole history of compensatory choices, we went many years without any and being slow to figure things out," said Bengals president Mike Brown earlier Monday. "We finally did and in recent years we’ve been the recipient of them."

I'll be writing a blog post covering the gist of your comment. Some teams do not understand comp picks very well, which could cause them to cost themselves a potential comp pick. Whether Arizona knew that Wright would could them a third-round comp pick, I don't know.